I-Corps: Edible Plant Leaf Scaffold for 3D Tissue Culture

这个I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是使用脱细胞植物叶片在3D环境中培养各种组织类型。拟议的研究有可能帮助研究人员进行3D组织病理学研究和开发用于心血管疾病和肌肉损失等疾病的移植物。此外，拟议的研究有可能开发出环境可持续的结构化肉制品，并且在生产过程中不使用动物屠宰或抗生素。这些结构化肉类产品可以包括牛肉、鸡肉、猪肉或任何其他类型的肉类。它们的潜在应用领域包括动物饲料和宠物食品、肉制品消费品、太空探索以及作战士兵的即食餐（MRE）。I-Corps的这个项目是基于开发3D组织培养支架，以解决当前组织工程研究的主要局限之一：无法创建能够在整个工程组织中输送氧气的血管网络。如果没有适当的血管形成，最大的活组织厚度仅为100-200微米。这个距离被称为氧扩散极限，并限制了细胞可以从主氧源存活多远。目前创建血管网络的解决方案仅显示出有限的成功。这项研究提出了将菠菜等常见植物脱细胞化作为开发3D组织培养应用支架的方法。使植物叶脱细胞的过程涉及使用GRAS材料清单上可获得的洗涤剂，包括十二烷基硫酸钠（SDS）、漂白剂、吐温（聚山梨醇酯）20、水和tris缓冲液。脱细胞过程从叶子上去除所有细胞和植物物质，留下清晰的纤维素骨架。纤维素已被证明是一种能够粘附细胞的生物相容性材料。脱细胞植物支架不仅比传统的脱细胞动物源性和合成替代品更便宜，而且可食用，容易获得，消费者熟悉，易于生产。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the use of decellularized plant leaves to culture various tissue types in 3D environments. The proposed research has potential to assist researchers with 3D tissue pathology studies and the development of grafts for conditions such as cardiovascular disease and muscle loss. In addition, the proposed research has potential to develop structured meat products that are environmentally sustainable and are produced without use of animal slaughter or antibiotics. These structured meat products can include beef, chicken, pork, or any other type of meat. Their potential applications lie in the fields of animal feed and pet food, consumer meat products, space exploration, and meal ready to eats (MREs) for combat soldiers.This I-Corps project is based on the development of 3D tissue culture scaffolds to address one of the major limitations in current tissue engineering research: the inability to create vascular networks capable of delivering oxygen throughout engineered tissue. Without proper vascularization, maximum viable tissue thickness is only 100–200 microns. This distance is known as the oxygen diffusion limit and restricts how far cells can survive from a main oxygen source. Current solutions to creating vascular networks have shown only limited success. This research proposes decellularization of common plants such as spinach as a method to develop scaffolds for 3D tissue culture applications. The process of decellularizing plant leaves involves the use of detergents available on the GRAS materials list including sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), bleach, tween (polysorbate) 20, water, and tris buffer. The decellularization process removes all cellular and plant material from the leaf, leaving behind a clear, cellulose backbone. Cellulose has been demonstrated to be a biocompatible material capable of cell adhesion. Decellularized plant scaffolds are not only cheaper than conventional decellularized animal-derived and synthetic alternatives, but are edible, easily accessible, familiar to consumers, and easily produced.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.